A budget tool to help our Catholic schools

By James J. Conroy, Commentary

Published 3:49 pm, Friday, February 6, 2015

The proposed Education Investment Tax Credit program included in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget and State of the State address, and already approved by the state Senate, is an important tool in keeping the network of Catholic schools in our state viable.

Why shouldn't the state incentivize an individual — or company — who chooses, of his own free will, to support education? The state gives tax credits for historic preservation, environmental conservation, energy efficiency, job development, brownfield rehabilitation, employing targeted populations and many other public benefit purposes. What better public purpose is there than educating the youth of the state? Investing in the existing private education system, especially the Catholic school education system, is a much safer bet than funding new schools, which fail after a few years.

For more than 100 years, the Diocese of Albany Catholic Schools has been "the alternative school environment" for many middle-income families. The Catholic school system has excelled in educating the youth of the Capital Region and preparing them for college, the workforce, military service and community service.

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James J. Conroy lives in Troy and is president of the Catholic Central High School Board of Trustees.

I doubt we could find a local business, courtroom, hospital, private company, school or government office that hasn't been headed at one time by a Catholic Central, Notre-Dame-Bishop Gibbons, Holy Names, Spa Catholic, Bishop Maginn, Christian Brothers Academy or LaSalle graduate.

These schools have stood the test of time and have proven their ability to meet the Board of Regents' and state criteria for educating young people. They survive largely on the tuition paid by families and contributions made by parishes, the diocese and private contributors. They do not share in, nor do they drain, taxes from public education. On the contrary, these schools supplement the public education system and provide a service that, if it were not available, would strain the public system to accommodate.

These schools are not snobbish prep schools, either. They still serve predominately middle-income families looking to provide their children a faith-based, value-driven education.

Our teachers and administrators work at a fraction of the cost of their public school colleagues. Yet, the need to pay them a fair wage and to keep up-to-date educational equipment and facilities demand that our schools increase budgets. To continue to keep tuition within the reach of middle-income families and to broaden the potential for lower-income families to have the option to send their children to private school, it is important that we find alternative sources of revenue. Bake sales and alumni fund drives will not cover the cost of a competent chemistry department or the replacement of outdated computers in the classroom.

The passage of the Education Investment Tax Credit program by the Legislature and its signing by Gov. Cuomo will provide an essential tool to both public and private schools. It will also provide resources to expand our outreach to populations that might prefer to have their children educated in the safe, academically stimulating and faith-based environment of private and parochial schools.